Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Will Launch at a ‘Reasonable Price’, Says Company

The Galaxy Note 9 will be launched a “reasonable price”, Samsung confirmed on Tuesday while announcing its second-quarter earnings. While the South Korean giant didn’t reveal the exact price, a recent report claimed that the 128GB storage variant of this year’s Galaxy Note model will debut at IDR 13,500,000 (roughly Rs. 64,400). To recall, the Galaxy Note 8 was launched in India last year in 64GB storage option with a price of Rs. 67,900. Samsung is set to launch the Galaxy Note 9 on August 9. This is earlier than the previous Galaxy Note offering that was unveiled in the later part of August. The company believes that the earlier launch will help expand its sales.

“Demand for smartphones and tablets is forecast to increase in the second half as the market enters a period of strong seasonality, but competition is seen intensifying as new smartphone models are released. In response, Samsung will seek to expand sales by introducing a new Galaxy Note earlier than usual, which offers exceptional performance for a reasonable price,” the company said in a statement while announcing its second-quarter results.

Samsung reported that while its April-June net income reached KRW 10.98 trillion (roughly Rs. 61,753 crores), its overall sales fell four percent to KRW 58.48 trillion (roughly Rs. 3.6 lakh crores). Also, its phone business faced a decline of KRW 1.39 trillion (roughly Rs. 8,500 crores) in operating income during the second quarter – majorly due to stagnated growth in the premium smartphone market. This is something that the company tries to change with the arrival of the Galaxy Note 9.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is expected to come with an upgraded display and an improved S Pen that is rumoured to support Bluetooth connectivity. A recent Geekbench listing highlighted that the handset will be powered by an Exynos 9820 SoC, though it was initially speculated to have the same Exynos 9810 SoC that debuted on the Galaxy S9 family earlier this year and its US version is likely to have the Snapdragon 845 SoC. It is also rumoured that Samsung will offer a 512GB storage option this year to give plenty of space to the Galaxy Note 9 users. Further, the new Galaxy Note model could come in multiple colour options and new colour combination to attract users. It is also expected to have an upgraded dual rear camera setup and a larger battery than what was found on the Galaxy Note 8.

Alongside the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung is so far rumoured to bring the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Tab S4at its Unpacked Galaxy event in New York on August 9.